Everything Has an End
by BeehiveOneThreeZer0
Summary: How far into darkness would you go for love? Akuroku implied Roxas X Riku.


Everything Has an End  
If everything ends… will you and I? How far into the darkness would you go for love?

Moderately dark fic. Not one of my best, not exactly a happy ending.

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Roxas laid on his bed, curled into himself again, hugging a pillow and sobbing. Unable to sleep, he trudged through the house groggily, a shirt clenched in his white knuckles and pressed to his chin at all times, inhaling the lingering smell. He was making his way down the stairs when something flashed and caught him off guard, the distraught blonde lost his footing and lurched forward, failing to grab the handrail and tumbling down the gently curved stairwell and onto floor at the front door.

"Roxas," he heard, painfully waking to the mild pool of blood and aching body, "Roxas you have to get up. You have to."

He managed to slide his elbow under him and push upward, head hung and dazed beyond belief.

"Get to the phone; you have to call the hospital."

He didn't understand; why? Who was that? How did he get on the floor? Where was he? He tried to stand but failed, sliding back down to the floor and injuring his side further with a cry of pain.

"GET UP," the voice commanded, desperate. "You HAVE to."

The injured blonde managed to grab at a nearby handrail and pull himself onto his feet with extreme pain, holding onto the wall and smearing it with his blood as he progressed, the voice continuing to goad him.

His numb hand gripped at a phone and he managed to dial the numbers 9. 1. And 1. When the operator came on, Roxas couldn't speak to her. He coughed horribly, blood and saliva slipping past his broken tongue and lips, some painted the phone.

"DAMMIT," the voice grated harshly, static suddenly filled the phone and then Roxas fell over, unable to hold himself up and unable to move due to blood loss and weakness. As his blue eyes fought to stay open, he could see a looming figure over him in black, "you have to stay awake. Do you hear me? Stay awake!" it commanded loudly.

He tried, fighting at his body. "If you don't stay awake- YOU WILL DIE. You have to stay AWAKE!"

Dying wouldn't be so bad. He wanted to say. They'd be together again, he wouldn't be alone anymore. Dying was okay. Dying was good, but for some reason, he listened to the strange and familiar figure above him in blurring black.

"Stay awake, please stay awake just a little longer, help is on the way. PLEASE."

Who are you? He wanted to say. Why do you care?

He could hear a siren in the distance, blurred and misunderstood. Then he heard the crash of his door being broke down. Then the chatter of voices and the figure disappeared, being replaced my multiples of colors and blurred faces, lights and flashes.

Roxas fell asleep to the pain of being taken away from that place. A woman from the ambulance, dressed in white looked around the room for a moment more, swearing that she had heard something. When she turned away and rushed into the back of the ambulance to help the fallen blonde, when she saw the shirt at the stairs. It was completely untouched, draped over a few steps and she grabbed it quickly, hoping it had some importance. Who carried around one shirt when they already had one on? She placed it near the blonde and whenever his blue eyes opened, they fixated on it, and she suddenly knew, the nostalgia fading from Roxas's face. She recognized him the second his eyes focused on her for a split second before sliding closed again. A motorcyclist had been killed in a three car pileup.

The said motorcyclist was his boyfriend, killed almost instantly in the pileup. The first two cars had smashed into each other, the cyclist managed to avoid them and skid off to the side, shaken but unharmed, when a third car slammed into the second, pivoting the first into the air. It was like Dominos.

He was buried under that car, unable to escape the two ton trap that landed on top of him. The only part of him that had been visible was his left arm and a cornucopia of blood, after a few careful minutes, a picture had been pried out of his fingers. It was the last thing he saw, and no doubt the most important person in the world to him locked in that piece of glossed paper. He'd most likely pulled it out right before the third car hit the second, a sense of knowing had flooded over him, and he wanted to see that face one last time. What he had said to it, if anything, was unknown.

She looked down at the blonde from that very picture with a form of pity, brushing his bloodied hair from his face carefully. She had been one of them that were called to the grisly scene.

It was like a sick and twisted game fate had played on her and the blonde both. She held the shirt in her hands, staring down at the deep blue fabric solemnly, contemplating how entirely wrong the entire ordeal was. The redheaded cyclist was only twenty when he died, far too young and inexperienced in the world. The blonde looked hardly over eighteen.

It was Roxas's birthday when he found out.

She had heard the story from a corner. The blonde had a small party at the same house he'd just been taken from. He'd answered the door with a big smile and bright eyes, yelling the redhead's name gleefully and then pausing at the men in black at his door. It tore out the corner's heart to see him, so sad on such a happy day.

And then they had to explain to him, the cyclist was never coming home. He'd denied it, telling them they were lying and swearing he was alive. It didn't register into the blonde's mind easily, taking nearly an hour of screaming and tears, a few silent friends in the background taking him away with equal tears streaming down their faces.

The girl's eyes narrowed sadly, fearing she might cry at unfairness of it all. Why did God hate this boy so much as to give him the very same people who helped his lover be pulled from wreckage in one piece take him from his home? It was cruel. The other technician laid a hand on the teary blonde's shoulder, assuring the injured Roxas was stable during the trip. He looked at her with a silent understanding, feeling the same way but not outwardly showing it anywhere but his teal eyes.

The blue eyes of the blonde girl remained locked on the shirt. "His name was Axel."

His grip on her shoulder tightened.

"His name is Roxas."

The blonde male slid his arm around her and squeezed reassuringly. "We'll take care of him," he tried to soothe. "He'll walk out fine."

"To what?" She replied, her voice cutting through the air like knives.

He did not reply. Unable to answer due a stop in his throat that was slowly choking them both in the stale air.

His friends were piled around him in chairs, in a deep slumber when he awakened. It was dark and the sound of crickets slipped past the windows and calmed him marginally. Everywhere ached, as if his body had been beaten and mistreated for days on end. He shivered at a sharp, almost painful chill in the air, making a soft noise of protest as he sat up, wrapping an arm around his torso. He looked around to see the softly sleeping faces of Kairi, Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Sora. His attention turned to a moving shadow in the corner of the room, as it moved it revealed the fact the curtains were not drawn, the glittering stars of the sky greeting him.

Roxas noted the way it moved, its height, and the careful way it tried not to disturb anyone or thing with a catlike, predatorily grace. He would recognize it anywhere, but shook it off. His eyes must be playing tricks on him. Scanning the room he found the nurse button and pressed it forcefully with his thumb, finding the act surprisingly painful.

A nurse hustled into the room a moment later. There was a serious of groans as the light came on with a soft 'ping' noise. Roxas paid them no attention, focused on the strange blurred shadow near the bathroom door. Despite the light, it was as dark and menacing as before, unable to be seen clearly, as if smudged at all the edges of its figure. The friends slowly came awake and bugged to know what the nurse, a woman whose name plate had a tag that said Aerith, was doing. She was flashing a light in his eyes, not replying to their stubborn questions.

It was then they noticed Roxas was awake, rushing over to his side with a glorious burst of friendliness despite their fatigue. The nurse told them to hush, or she would have to make them leave, she had already bent the rules to allow them to stay in that room together with him. After a few moments she left to retrieve a doctor. "What's that?"

He lifted a finger to the shadow, and it seemed to move slightly. The friends all exchanged glances to where he was pointing and then each other. "A… wall?" Sora replied, confused.

"The black thing, what is it?" He asked again.

"Roxas… what black thing?" Kairi said softly. "It's just a wall. A white wall."

"How can you not see it? It's _right there._" He pointed at it, almost frantically.

The black thing suddenly looked more human, what seemed to be a head tilted to the side slightly and it moved, watching him as his eyes and finger followed its movements perfectly. It froze at the door, standing in front of it.

The friends had followed Roxas's frightened gaze, then he jumped backwards slightly when the door opened. The door and the people began to step THROUGH the black figure, as if he was nothing but air. The group looked worried, "Are you okay Roxas?" Hayner asked.

The nurse came back in with a doctor Even. The doctor then began to ask him multitudes of stupid questions, like; do you know where you are, what is your name, what day is it, who is that…

Roxas's blue eyes never left the mysterious black figure, his fingers clenched in a shirt on his lap. Eventually, his friends went back to sleep and Roxas was nearly alone with the figure enveloped in the nighttime darkness. Under doctor's orders, he was supposed to be sleeping, but found himself unable to with the stare of the figure and the odd cold in the air that no one else could seem to feel.

"What are you?" he whispered to it. It did not reply. "Why are you here? What do you want from me?"

It looked away from him, becoming clearer and more recognizably human each moment he looked at it. "What I want," it replied in a tone that was so very nostalgic and painful to the blonde, "is the assurance of your safety."

"My safety," he replied. "I already lost the love of my life, and I fell down the stairs and nearly died."

"Do you really think you lost them?"

"He's dead," Roxas said weakly, voice cracking on the dreaded word. "It's hard to get more gone that that."

"Then tell me Roxas," it said in such a perfect monotone it was scary. "Who was it that helped you after your fall?"

The blue eyes looked down at the shirt clenched in his small fingers, thinking back to the blurry memories of after he fell. The soft voice commanding him get up and stay awake… the blurry figure standing over him as he fought to live for an unknown reason.

"Haven't you figured it out yet?" It asked, standing carefully close to the blonde, the cold chilling him to the bone. Roxas watched in the dimly lit room as the blurred figure became eerily clear, lowering a black hood to reveal the familiar head of red spikes. He was as pale as the moonlight, green eyes somehow brighter against the softness of his skin and tattoos as dark as the night sky.

"Axel…"

The image of his dead lover blinked, slowly and as if trying to remember how to do so.

"What happened to you?" Roxas asked, taking in the eerie and anything but heavenly appearance.

"I died," he said as if it was the most boring thing in the world. "And I went to Hell."

"Hell?" Roxas repeated. "Why?"

He clucked his tongue. "More of a limbo really, but closer to hell."

"Why?" Roxas repeated, stronger and more urging in his tone.

"I wasn't good enough for Heaven, not bad enough for Hell I suppose. I was given the task of becoming a death spirit."

"Death… spirit?"

Axel sighed and Roxas could tell it was forced as the male took a weightless seat beside him, not even disturbing the fabric of his bed. "Roxas… you shouldn't be able to see me," there was a pause. "Only those that are close to death can see a death spirit. I broke the rules by helping you, and this is probably my punishment for it…"

"What's a death spirit Axel…?"

"The more common term is a Grim Reaper."

Roxas drew away from him slightly.

"Relax, you're not near death. I can't take the soul of someone so very much alive."

"I'm alive then?" Roxas asked weakly.

"And awake," he added with an icy tone.

He followed Roxas's gaze down to the shirt under his fingers. After a moment he said; "You hated that shirt; kept telling me to get rid of it." Axel looked at Roxas with a mild confusion.

"It smells like you," Roxas said softly. "And you always said it was your favorite."

Axel blinked slowly, watching with a broken heart as a tear slid down Roxas's cheek. "I'm sorry Roxas."

"Everything has an end Axel. It's not your fault that you met yours."

The reaper slowly lifted his hand and cupped Roxas's cheek with a strange sensation that tingled against his skin, so warm and yet so very cold and unable to felt otherwise. "But I didn't leave. I haven't truly ended yet. All I've done is caused you pain."

"I suppose that's true," Roxas whispered.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too."

They remained in silence, Axel watching over him with a grim sense of loneliness as he watched the blonde eventually fall asleep. He looked over his shoulder and out towards the clouded moon, silently wondering when he would be unable to make the blonde find the will to live… and more so, where he would go afterwards. He looked back to the blonde, his shirt still clenched in the white knuckles and held close to his chest. How he wished he could sleep.

Roxas woke up to see a blurred figure, hood up and invisible to the rest of the room. A month later, he was allowed to leave the hospital, a friend taking him in for the meantime. The said friend, a twenty five year old called Riku was a friend of Axel's from work, felt the need to help him anyway he could. He felt he owed Axel something, and so taking care of the still injured college student was his way of tying up loose ends with the invisibly watching redhead.

Riku's house was small, but it had enough room for the two of them to move around comfortably. The silver haired male occasionally had the strangest sensation he was being watched or followed, shrugging away the occasional glimpse of red hair and startling green eyes on the very edge of his vision. He believe it was his nerves, and Roxas never had the audacity to correct him.

Every night, the two lovers would speak. It was always the time that was hardest on Roxas, going to sleep with no one beside him, no warm weight and reassuring touch. Axel tried his hardest to not make it more painful. Roxas would turn on a stereo system to mask his voice, and then would slip into the bed, talking to the spirit until he fell asleep. He never heard the door open a centimeter, and never noticed the bright turquoise eye that watched him chatter to what seemed like himself. The door would slowly shut and the concerned silver haired male never said a word.

After about another month, Riku was concerned. The talks seemed to get more and more animated, Roxas clearly displaying more enthusiasm towards nighttime and he rarely wanted to be around people. "Roxas?"

The blonde looked up from the pizza, right arm still in a sling and cheese dripping to the ground, strung from the piece in his mouth and the whole in his hand.

He was suddenly unsure what to say, "Uhm… who are you talking to at night?"

"Kairi, she calls around that time," he said easily. "Just checking on me."

Riku knew it was lie, Roxas's phone had been left in the kitchen or on the table more times than not. "Why are you lying?"

The blonde paused, "I'm not."

"Yes you are, Kairi called a few days ago to make sure you were alright, she was upset you haven't called her in a while."

The pizza was lowered to the plate at the table.

"Roxas," Riku urged. "Tell me the truth… what's going on?"

Roxas's eyes looked towards the ghost like redhead behind Riku, the silver haired male turned and saw nothing; Axel looked down on him with an expression of pity.

"You don't want to know the truth," he said gently, suddenly losing his appetite and pushing the plate away from him slightly. He got up to leave but Riku stood up and got in the way.

"Maybe I don't, but I promised I'd take care of you, so you're going to tell me." Axel cocked an eyebrow at him in the distance. "What's going on?"

Roxas sighed, turning to look at the solemn spirit in the background. Riku looked again, still seeing nothing and confused. "What are you looking at?" Roxas waited for some sort of sign, and the redhead nodded.

"You're going to need to sit down for this."

Riku was suddenly very nervous. He made his way to the couch and sat down, Roxas sitting on the coffee table across from him. Axel stood behind Riku to reassure the blonde. "Ever since the day I fell, I can see something."

"Something?" Riku repeated.

Roxas made a soft noise of annoyance, trying to find the right words. "I can see Death Spirits."

Riku looked confused. "Okay…"

It was the next word that took him off guard. "Axel."

"Roxas… Axel is dead."

"Axel is a death spirit," Roxas elaborated. "A grim reaper."

Riku looked moderately horrified, "so the person you've been talking to…"

"Is Axel," Roxas confirmed. "I never said anything because I didn't want to sound insane."

Axel bit his lip and looked down at the top of Riku's head. The male was ridden with confusion and worry, fearing for Roxas's mind. "Axel's GONE Roxas."

"Then why is he standing behind you?"

Riku flinched downward sharply, looking up to the back of the couch. "Stop fucking around Roxas, be serious."

"I am being serious," he said sharply. "Axel is here. He's here, in this room, standing behind you, right _there,_" he pointed at Axel, as if to emphasize the point.

Riku looked horrified. "WHY?"

"He's death spirit, he helped me the day I was supposed to die, and now I can always see them."

"Them?" he repeated in a fearful tone.

It was true; Roxas had encountered a few other death spirits in his line of sight. One named Xion had particularly taken his interest, but Axel told him not to talk to her or any of them. He was afraid they would punish him somehow, so made Roxas keep a low profile.

There was an awkward silence; Roxas's eyes followed Axel as he moved from behind Riku to stand beside the frightened male. Riku looked up at the blank space of air with disbelief.

"Touch him," he said to Axel. "He's not going to believe me without proof."

Axel nodded and reached out to the silver haired male who suddenly tensed into a immobilized state. He felt the perfectly recognizable shape of fingers wrapping around his arm. He looked down at the space of his skin, confused and bewildered. "Axel, are you really there?" He looked down at his hand.

Roxas watched as Axel used his index finger to carefully trace a Y.E. and an S. into this palm.

The fingers snapped closed, Riku panting for breath and jumping away fearfully. "Holy shit," he started. "Oh my fucking god, Axel's here. He's dead and in my living room. I must be going insane, yes absolutely insane."

"He's not taking it very well Axel," Roxas said to the chuckling redhead.

"I noticed," he agreed.

For the next couple of days, Riku was nervous wreck, and Roxas had to tell him exactly where Axel was at all times or he wouldn't calm down. He avoided the area Roxas pointed to like the plague, even when Roxas pointed to the wrong place purposely.

After a week, Riku had become accustomed to his otherworldly visitor. He even held out his hand and had simple games of twenty questions with the redhead. Axel paid his nervousness no mind and stayed with Roxas at all times. He never left Roxas's side, even as the blonde slept. He'd practically moved in with the silver haired friend, his arm slowly healing and his strength returning to him; the cast would come off in another month of two. Axel teased him about the constant complaining on how much it itched. Then one day, the teasing stopped.

No one could get the redhead's attention.

"Axel? Are you okay?"

He didn't reply, staring off to a blank space. Roxas reached out to the cold space of air that was Axel's shoulder and the redhead looked at him. "Hey Rox."

"What's wrong?"

"Just thinking," he replied.

"About?"

"Something that happened recently while you were asleep."

Roxas waited for him to continue.

"Another death spirit found me, demanded to know why I was slacking in my duties. They figured out my connection to you," he paused, licking his lower lip and nibbling on it. "I think they might try to do something about it."

"Something like?" Roxas prompted, Riku stepping curiously into the room, oblivious to one side of the conversation.

"They might kill you Roxas, I don't know what they'd do to me."

Roxas put an arm around the invisible figure, allowing Riku to figure out his exact location and position; he nodded to himself and wandered off. Roxas would have laid his head against Axel's shoulders, but he'd fallen through him last time, a cold and tingly sensation covered both sides of his hand as Axel's covered it. They hoped for the best, fearing and mentally preparing for the worst.

Axel laid beside him that night, staring at the blonde's tranquil expression in his gentle slumber. He blinked slowly and brushed his fingers against the moonlit face. The song Sacrifice by Tatu played in the background and he laughed at the irony of it.

He wasn't even surprised when a person stepped through a portal to hell and addressed him by name, chains in hand. He looked back at Roxas for one last time, not wanting to fight and get the blonde hurt for his sins. He walked forward and allowed the chain to encompass his wrists and neck, swallowing thickly and walking into the portal without a fight.

"I love you Roxas."

The blonde woke up the next morning alone. And the next morning. And the next.

Riku had noticed Roxas's quietness, always waiting, watching for any sign of the missing redhead, determined that he would come back and would listen to no reason.

He'd seen a few death spirits cross through the house, and walking down the street, hoods up and heads hung. Roxas's heart fluttered and fell with each one, realizing it was not his beloved redhead. Riku tried to comfort him, saying that maybe it was a good thing, but Roxas reminded him of where Axel went, and the silver male could do nothing to soothe him. Axel didn't deserve Hell, and they both knew it in their hearts that was where he was.

Roxas muddled his way through life, returning to college with a grimace and finding it difficult to study any subject but Math, escaping the brutal reminders of death and God. After class one day, he decided to take a walk instead of returning to his new home. He stepped lightly over the frozen ground and his breath was visible on the wind, the song Teardrop by Massive Attack surrounding his senses and making his mind numb as his feet carried him down the street. He stopped in front of a house, slipping into the unlocked door and looking around the emptied room. He looked down to see a blood stain, and then turned his attention upstairs.

Slowly, he made his way up them with extreme caution, pausing at the top of the stairs. He took a few steps forward and turned to the open door. In the quiet room, everything was missing but Roxas could still see it. The pile of dirty clothes that had taken over their hamper. The disarray of sheets on the bed. The black curtains that blocked out virtually all light. The little nightstand and it's silver lamp shade.

And most of all, the laughing redhead, a grin stretched across his face and laughter echoing in the memory of it and he realized as a tear hit the floor he was crying. He collapsed to his knees and sobbed for what seemed like hours. He eventually managed to pull himself back together and sniffled slightly, looking over the empty room once more.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing in here?"

Roxas turned to see a small woman with red tipped brown hair. "I'm sorry… I was just…"

Her glare softened, "wait a minute… You're the guy who lived here, Roxas right?"

He stopped the horrid attempts of sentences and nodded.

"I'm so sorry! I'm your agent, my name is Red."

He nodded again, wanting to be left alone.

"Can I ask you a question?" He made no reply, but she took it as a yes. "Why sell this place?"

Roxas looked around at all the fluttering memories that screamed a certain redhead's name. "I lost someone."

She quieted down and looked around the room. The sunlight streamed through the paneled glass of his window and cast a dark shadow on walls. The echo of Roxas's memory vibrated in the suddenly stagnant air. "I'm sorry for your loss."

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"How are you doing Roxas?" Riku asked quietly to the dazed blonde on his couch.

"I'm alright," he replied softly.

"Are you sure?"

"Am I ever?"

Riku chuckled and handed him a cup of water. Roxas took the small glass and thanked him before taking a sip of the crystalline fluid. "You start your new job tomorrow don't you?"

He nodded, "Yeah. I hope I can do alright, my arm just got the cast taken off."

"Well don't push yourself; you've been through enough drama."

There was a pause between them from lack of conversation. Riku took the space beside Roxas as the small blonde sipped at his water. Roxas groaned when a high pitched ring cut through his mind and threatened to make it explode.

"What's wrong?"

Roxas rubbed his forehead, "headache."

It became progressively worse and when the small blonde tried to open his eyes, they were filled with images. Flashes of faces, colors, emotions, and sights blurred through his mind. It all froze on one, Axel, screaming for some sort, any sort of help. Then the images stopped completely, and Roxas realized he was in Riku's warm embrace, arms wrapped around his shoulders and pulled into the silver haired male's lap. He pushed away from him, "Riku what…?"

"You were crying," he said softly, cupping Roxas's cheek and wiping a tear away with his thumb. Roxas drew away sharply.

Riku sighed deeply, "Okay… I understand."

Roxas relaxed marginally as Riku removed his touch and resumed a normal seating arrangement. "I need to use the bathroom…. Don't wait up." The blonde slipped away and made the trek to the said room. Once behind the door, he locked it and swallowed. He stared into his reflection for some time, before nodding. "I'm coming Axel. Hang in there."

He tugged on the mirror to reveal a medicine cabinet and he pulled out every single medication he could. Taking one last look in the mirror, he stared long and hard at his expression; it was cold, unloving and selfish. He knew that this would be cruel to Riku, so with one last burst of humanity, he grabbed an eyeliner and scrawled SORRY across it.

He then turned his attention to the pills, and one by one, he opened the containers and started downing three or four at a time. It only took a few minutes for the convulsions to start, and then… blackness. He opened his eyes to see a gray room, and in this gray room, stood a death spirit.

She said nothing, but lowered her hood to reveal a head of black, almost blue hair and startling blue eyes. "Xion," Roxas breathed. "Thank God it's you."

"God isn't here," she said smoothly.

"I need your help, I'm looking for a spirit named Axel. Have you heard of him?"

"Axel?" She repeated slowly. "What would you want with Axel?"

Roxas touched his lips with trembling fingers, unsure if that was the right thing to say, he could wind up punishing the redhead worse if he didn't watch his tongue. "I just…."

"You are the human correct?"

"What?"

"The human he was infatuated with, the human he sacrificed his duties as a spirit to save."

Roxas's gaze lowered, "I guess I am…"

"I will take you to him to him with the assurance it is what you desire…"

"Take me to him." Roxas said firmly as he stepped closer to her. 

She nodded and the two were engulfed in ice, melting upon entry.

-__-E-v-E-r-Y-t-H-i-N-g-_-B-u-T-_-u-S-__-

He knocked again to be sure. "Roxas?"

When no one answered, Riku panicked, reaching up to the door frame to grab the spare key and unlocking the door quickly to find a convulsing blonde. "Holy shit," he muttered before rushing to the nearest phone and dialing 911.

Meanwhile, Roxas opened his eyes to see what he guessed was Hell. To his surprise, there were no flames, no demons, just a field of endless flowers. "What's…?"

Xion walked away and Roxas followed her closely. "This is Limbo, I advise of you to stay close behind me at all times. "

He stayed on her heels, matching her step with his own and frantically looking around. Smoke and flowers were greeted by waterfalls and sparkling balls of rainbow, crystalline light. A moon shone in front of a pillar of black smoke, in which walked Xion and Roxas.

They stepped into what appeared to be a black walled building, Xion wasted no time stepping through the corridors and then paused in front of one. She raised an arm and pointed to the door. "He's in there."

"Axel," Roxas rushed over to the door and pushed it open, pausing when he saw what was inside.

Nothing. The door slammed behind him, enveloping Roxas in total darkness.

"You will find your beloved Axel on the fifth level of hell. Good luck."

Roxas wondered what Riku was doing in a brief moment of denial.

Riku in fact, was in the back of an ambulance with a nearly dead, comatose blonde, blaming himself for everything that had just happened and sobbing with regret and self pity.

In a few hours, the door of darkness opened and a man stepped in, grabbing Roxas by the hair and whistling as he dragged the blonde to another room. In spite of himself, Roxas screamed for help from a certain person that was deeper in Hell. He looked up at his tormentor to see a man with an X scarred across his face, and pale moonlit blue hair, striking golden eyes that burned into his own. Roxas was strapped down to a chair and he tried to struggle at the restraints as the torture began.

He realized as a snake bit into his wrist, he had to get to the lower levels of hell and that meant pissing the tormentor off. He began cussing the man out, and then thrashing violently enough to turn a blade against the man, in anger, he was thrown into level two.

He rushed through an endless maze, but instead of following paths as he should, he burst through the hedges, climbed fences and reached the center. His punishment was level three. "Good Luck" The words echoed loudly in his head as Roxas began to sabotage another level's rules, breaking them in any way he can in order to reach level four.

Axel was hung to a wall, arms away from his body and barbed wire tying him down. His spirit seeped from his wounds and he was dazed with the loss of it. His captor, Reno watched in amusement as an unbearable hunger began to take over the death spirit, "What's… what's wrong with me?" He growled.

"You see Axel…When a reaper is weakened, a thirst to regain their strength ensues. The strength of them is in their 'blood' so in order to obtain their power again, they must drink the strength of another soul…" Reno chuckled, "and such a delicious one is headed towards us ever still."

"You bastard…" Axel hissed.

"Now now," Reno chided. "No need for name calling."

Axel fought at the chains for a moment, the bladed edges cutting into his skin and blood pouring from the wounds, his eyes gleaming with hatred. "I swear to God if you hurt him…"

"I never said anything about my hurting him… you see, I'm not the wounded one that will seek out a soul to devour. It is not I you should be worried about."

Axel drew back and into himself, becoming mad with a starvation he denied. "I'd never harm him. NEVER!"

"We shall see Axel, we shall see."

Roxas, meanwhile, found his way into level four, an endless ocean of sea monsters and abyss dwellers, but instead of heading upward, he swam for the deep. Breaking the water's surface in level five, he pushed himself up onto the surface of what looked like a dungeon. "Back to level one? But how?"

He trusted his inner instincts and began rushing through the corridor of bolted doors that led to darkness. "Axel!?"

He could hear an echo of a blonde's voice; Reno laughed and exited the room, leaving the door open and waiting. Axel wanted to warn him, but could find no strength to, all of his energy fighting the very reasons Death Spirits dwelled in Hell. He heard the voice again, louder this time and again and again.

He heard the voice of his insane lover until the blonde stopped in the doorway, skidding on his feet when he saw the redhead. "Axel…?"

Roxas was slow in his approach, there was more blood than he believed a person could have dripping down his body, pooling on the stone floor. A soft hand on Axel's cheek startled him awake again, dizzy from fatigue and unfocused. "Rox…as?"

"Oh God," Roxas muttered sharply, "I've got to get you down."

Axel felt the blonde shift at the chains slightly, delicately when he realized they were sharp. He shook his head numbly. "Roxas… no…"

"Shut up," he commanded in response. "Just shut up, I'll have you down in a minute."

"You have to leave…" he uttered on a low breath. There was a soft sound when Roxas's hand was cut open, and when the redhead smelled the soul leaking from the blonde's body, he lost control completely. Roxas backed away when a sharp snarl was all he heard, turning around to see Axel attempting to snap at his neck. He jolted away, surprised and marginally frightened as Axel continued to become more and more animalistic. The chains groaned at the pressure until they snapped, a door slamming shut behind the now terrified blonde. "A…Axel?"

A drawn out hiss was his reply, followed by a soft groan as the red head stalked closer to him. Roxas stood firm as all the chains fell away, revealing cuts and gashes deep enough to kill a human. Blood and saliva passed over his lips, and sharpened teeth hissed as air passed through.

"Roxas," Axel replied, cracking his neck with a sickening snap. "Run."

He launched forward and the blonde had little time to dodge as Axel came at him again, a swipe of clawed nails and a snarl of rage as the blonde blocked him by flipping a table over. The three inch thick wood snapped at the redhead's strength, Roxas's eyes widening in panic as the splinters of wood floated past his face in slow motion, and then an unbearable pain at his neck.

He turned his head to see spikes of a bright red, attached to an ear and neck. His world was becoming dizzy, distorting in the blue eyes that beheld it. And then the pressure on his neck released and he fell numb and weak into his attacker's arms.

Axel came to his senses again and realized he felt warm, no longer cold and empty. He also realized there was weight in his arms, and with a muffled cry of horror, he looked down to behold a blonde coated in blood.

The line went dead, Riku launching from his seat and practically screaming for help as a blonde slowly slipped past life and into death. Everything was slow motion as Axel brushed away strands of loose hair from his forehead before sobbing brokenly into the bloodstained chest, and meanwhile nurses and doctors fought to save the living body's life. Try as they both might, Roxas was somewhere else, fading into a burst of light from Axel's arms. The redhead and silver haired male both looked away to see Roxas, bathed in light and glowing with heaven's graces, the blood covered Roxas dissipating from Axel's touch and dying in Riku's.

"I love you Axel," the one the redhead saw whispered, wordless to a dumb stricken Riku. The blonde doubles turned away and faded into nothingness. "Goodbye."

Axel looked down at the blood that stained his body, Reno stepping in with a smirk that made him insane. He tore the male apart, a power seething through his body more powerful than any energy or crimson body fluid. It wasn't until Axel was standing in limbo again did he realize, Roxas was gone. He stood simply, looking down at the rush of flowers as crystal lights adorned with liquefied rainbows floated around him teasingly.

Roxas's words replayed in his head and for the second time, he dropped to his knees and sobbed. After so long, he walked back into the living world, beholding the blonde's funeral procession and a silver haired friend solemn as he stood among teenagers. Axel stood beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder, knowing that the silver haired one could feel him again.

Riku glanced in that direction and then back at the rose covered casket as it was lowered into the ground. Friends, so sad that they could not shed tears, watched in a sense of longing horror as it disappeared from view. The minister led them away, but Riku stayed with Axel there.

A glimpse of white caught Axel's eye and when he looked up, an arc angel smiled back at him. Blonde hair glittered as much as his smile, and blue eyes sparkled brightly at him.  
"If everything has an end… will you and I?"  
The angel shifted closer to him on gray, feathered wings and stepped into his embrace. "Never," Axel breathed into his hair. Riku eventually turned away from the slowly filling grave, forever leaving behind a piece of his own soul.

-__-E-v-E-r-Y-t-H-i-N-g-_-B-u-T-_-u-S-__-

Riku never can seem to get laid can he?  
As I said. Not my best, I kinda flubbed it, not knowing where in hell it was going but letting it go there. Very short, I don't care for its lack of description and detail. It's missing half the story personally, but I was tired of working on it. So it's no Fallen Fairytale. (if you haven't read that- DO IT NOW.)

Blah blah blah. Yakkita yak yak.

I'm done.


End file.
